Insurance costs in the childcare sector can’t be stemmed by the Government, it was claimed today.
Minister of State with special responsibility for insurance, Michael D’Arcy, has said there is nothing the Government can do to intervene with the soaring costs.
But a spokeswoman for the Federation for Early Childcare Providers said that “thousands of families” could be left without childcare in the new year due to an “imminent insurance crisis” in the sector.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, Mr D’Arcy said the Government could not intervene in a sector that had market viability.
He was speaking after the FECP called on him to provide emergency funding to address the issue.
Mr D’Arcy said the Government has put in place a structure to try and reform the insurance sector as a whole and what has happened over childcare is a specific problem within the sector.
FECP spokeswoman Elaine Dunne called on Mr D’Arcy to provide emergency funding to tackle the rising insurance costs for childcare providers.
She said parents are shocked and do not know what to do and that the issue has been going on for months.
She said: “For me it means that we might have to close up, no one knows really what we’re going to do.
“We don’t have enough money.
“One of them that would be my smallest one, and that would be 22 children and four staff.
“It’s just gone beyond, you know, comprehension at this stage. We need the minister to meet with us, she needs to sit down and talk to us.
“The Taoiseach needs to support us here, the government, we need the help. We cannot do this on our own.
“I mean, I’m looking at my WhatsApp group this morning on the amount of people saying that they may have to close up, mainly it’s really hitting the ECC scheme, which only open in the morning, they may have a class in the morning and a class in the afternoon as well.
“And it looks like a lot of those little services are going to close down and they are really important services.”
SIPTU have also warned that the crisis could force creches to close.
Early Years professional Hazel O’Connor said: “Many services which provide the Early Childhood and Education Scheme will be left with no alternative but to close due to these insurance hikes.
“This is because the funding model of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs did not take account of insurance hikes and services cannot charge parents additional fees.”
